Root Menu

by Theodore Zeldin

Part One: Why it is hard to meet an Average French Person

1 How to avoid Seeing the Sight2 How to interpret their regional accents3 How to tell them apart4 How to laugh at their jokes, and when to look solemn

Part Two: How to Love them

5 How to appreciate a grandmother6 How children deal with their parents7 How they get married8 Why it is becoming harder to find and keep a spouse9 What lovers want from one another

Part Three: How to compete and negotiate with them

10 How to find people with real power11 How to distinguish a manager from an aristocrat12 How angry workers deal with tough bosses13 Where to find a Communist's heart14 What becomes of the drop-outs15 How small shopkeepers survive16 How to be friends with a peasant

Part Four: How to appreciate their taste

17 How to eat properly18 How to be chic19 How they chose their style of life

Part Five: How to understand what they are trying to say

20 How to make sense of their language21 How to recognize culture22 How to judge the effects of their education23 How not to be intimidated by their intellectuals

Part Six: How to sympathize with them

24 How to interpret the anger of teenagers25 Why Women's Liberation moves slowly26 How they treat foreigners and Jews27 What illnesses they suffer from, and how they survive them28 How not to be bored in old age29 How they pray